1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope system comprising an endoscope for use in an endoscopic examination or in surgery under endoscopic observation, and treatment instruments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, endoscopes for medical use have been adopted widely. In such an endoscope, an elongated insertion unit thereof is inserted into a body cavity for observation of an intracorporeal organ or the like. If necessary, treatment instruments are inserted into a treatment channel in order to conduct various kinds of therapeutic treatments.
The treatment instruments are thin and long so that they can be inserted into the lumen of the treatment channel which lies through an endoscope and has a diameter of approximately 3 mm and a length of approximately 2 m. While the thin and long treatment instrument is being inserted into the elongated treatment channel in the endoscope, however, part of the instrument may be broken or damaged. For this reason, physicians must pay close attention to the treatment instrument to be inserted into the treatment channel.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-80335 has disclosed an endoscope for which treatment instruments are made of a material having appropriate elasticity or have distal ends thereof streamlined in order to prevent the treatment instruments from being damaged during insertion.
Moreover, for conducting a trans-endoscopic treatment, since the endoscope and treatment instruments are formed mutually independently, a physician must use both of his/her hands to handle the complex system of endoscope and treatment instruments. Alternatively, a plurality of people including paramedics must be called to assist in the handling of the endoscope and of the treatment instruments. Thus, expertise is needed. In some endoscopes, an operation unit for handling treatment instruments is coupled firmly to an operation unit for handling an endoscope in an effort to simplify handling of the endoscope and treatment instruments.
However, where the treatment instruments differ from traditional treatment elements such as by changing the material or streamlining its appearance, as described in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 64-80335, no fundamental solution is provided. In particular, when a special material is used, it is hard to procure the material and the manufacturing process may be complex. The incorporation of such special materials is therefore unfavorable for mass-production and leads to an expensive treatment tool.
Moreover, when an endoscope and treatment instrument are coupled firmly to each other in order to simplify handling of the endoscope and treatment instrument, the operation unit for handling the endoscope and the operation unit for handling treatment instruments interfere with each other. This poses a problem of poor maneuverability.
Furthermore, when an elongated treatment instrument is post-processed, that is, cleared or sterilized after a treatment, a problem occurs in that it is hard to clean or the post-processing takes too much time . Moreover, when treatment instruments are stored or managed after the post-processing, since the treatment instruments are thin and long, a large storage space is needed.